By gaining access rights from owners, users may quickly and easily access a variety of digital objects, also known as content. These digital objects include images, electronic books “e-books,” audio recordings, video recordings, computer applications, and other forms of information transferable over a communication network such as the internet.
As use of digital objects increases, users may wish to transfer the digital objects to other users. These transfers may include a sale, a rental, a gift, a loan, a trade, etc. However, several problems manifest when transferring a digital object. While a physical object such as a copy of a paperback book only exists in one place at a time, easy and inexpensive copies of a digital object without loss of fidelity are possible. Thus, easy copying and repeated sale of the same digital object is possible, potentially eliminating scarcity of the digital object. Because of this, many owners implement digital rights management to prevent such impermissible transfers. Furthermore, the digital object as originally transferred to the initial purchaser may have license restrictions or other limitations on permissible use or further transfer. For example, a license to use a free download of a popular song may expire after a few days.
A secondary market which allows users to effectively and permissibly transfer “used” digital objects to others while maintaining scarcity is therefore desired. A “used” digital object is one to which a user has legitimately obtained access or ownership rights (hereinafter “access rights”), and to which the user may permissibly transfer to another user.